The onset of fall…
Debora Moore has spent a lot time in the 2 ½-mile span between her home of 20 years in the Mt. Baker District of Seattle, near Lake Washington, and her studio in the International District. In fact, many of the most meaningful moments of her life occurred within a 3-mile city circle, from her beginnings as a glassblower 30 years ago at Pratt Fine Art Center to her 2015 exhibit Glass Orchidarium at the Northwest African American Museum (NWAAM). Her studio is in a turn of the century building that at one time was a Baptist Church, but also once housed a brothel upstairs. In the back of the building, in the hotshop she shares with her husband (artist Benjamin Moore), there are two work benches, a large furnace that holds about 600 pounds, two glory holes (one for larger and one for smaller works), and a pot furnace for color. All that shut down early in 2020 when the pandemic hit, but Debora had just finished a few years of demanding work on her exhibition Arboria at the Tacoma Art Museum, so the rest was welcome.
Debora loves Seattle, finds the temperate rainforest climate perfect for her sensibilities, loves the green moss, lichens, and spongy woods, and everywhere you go there is water. She also gets creative inspiration from the rain; when the air is crisp and clean, everything is heightened—especially in the woods where she really absorbs the essential energies of the forest. She went to Costa Rica once to study the flora and fauna, and while she is inspired by tropical travels in her work, it was hot and humid and there were way too many snakes.
In her quiet time these past few months, Debora and her husband have enjoyed cooking, listening to audio books, watching shows, and reading to each other (a tradition that goes back to outings to the beach during their early years together). They love Italian food, inspired by their honeymoon in Italy, and Benjamin is fluent in the language. Cooking Italian reminds Debora of being newly married and being picked up at the train station in Venice by Lina and Lino Tagliapietra for a visit with them in Murano. Lina taught her how to make gnocchi. This spring, Debora and Benjamin also spent some time in their glass cabin in the woods on the rugged Pacific Northwest, taking long walkson the beach. When Debora was stressed preparing to design the 2,500 square feet of gallery space for her 2015 show at NWAAM, her husband promised her a glass cabin in the woods, which he built himself from old wood sash windows which he collected.
Since its closure in February, Debora has barely been in her studio. As a deeply feeling empath, the stress of the pandemic has hampered the joie de vivre she needs to lose herself creatively. But something shifted in August when she went to Tacoma to break down her Arboria exhibition and she was reacquainted with the work after 9 months. She started going back to the studio again, using the knowledge she gained from Arboria to think about a new series on foxgloves and some new pieces from her Host series. (She is fascinated by the fact that orchids use rocks and trees as hosts, yet they are not parasitic because they draw their water from the air). While she carefully packs Arboria for its next stop at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute, and braves her fears of pandemic-era travel to be on site for the unpacking and installation of all its glorious parts, she looks to the onset of fall as a hopeful time for creative inspiration and global well-being.
Installation images from Arboria at the Tacoma Art Museum from January 2019 – March 2020.
Enjoy this PBS Profile on Debora Moore…
Works by Debora Moore…
About the Artist…
Debora and her husband, artist Benjamin Moore, enjoy a night gondola ride. The Moores were recently in Venice to celebrate his Lifetime Achievement Award.
Debora Moore has been an instructor at Pilchuck, Pratt, and the Hilltop Artist-in-Residence Program in Tacoma, WA. In 1998, she was accepted as a member in the African American Design Archive at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. Her work was included in the Artistry of Orchids exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC in 2000. Her solo exhibition, Natural Reflections, opened in 2005 at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, followed by a residency at the Museum. In 2005, she was also awarded artist-in-residence at the Abate Zanetti School in Murano, Italy.
Debora was awarded the Rakow Commission in 2007, with inclusion in the permanent collection at the Corning Museum of Glass and participated in Corning’s Meet the Artist podcast series. In 2009 she was selected to exhibit at the 9th Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum. She participated in a group show, Flora, at Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark, in 2010. Her work was exhibited in the group exhibition, Convergence Zone, at the Bellevue Art Museum in 2011. Debora installed a solo show, Collectanea Botanica – Orchidaceae, at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, and exhibited at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. The April 2012 opening coincided with a residency awarded to her by the museum. This year the Northwest African American Museum opened a solo exhibition of Debora work in Seattle, Washington. In 2019, the Tacoma Art Museum feature, Debora Moore: Arboria, the artist’s new monumental sculptures exploring the beauty and awe of seasonal changes.